One type of display system, for example, a video display system or other display system, configuration consists of an illumination source (sometimes referred to as light source) and a pixilated, passive display. The image is created by modulating the intensity of light emitted from the illumination source simultaneous with transmission through the display on a pixel by pixel basis. An example of such a display system is that based on the Liquid Crystal Display (sometimes referred to as LCD). System Synchronized Brightness Control (sometimes referred to as SSBC) (as well as variants on this approach) is a means of simultaneously adjusting the backlight brightness and the gray levels of the LCD pixels in real time based on the content of the input image. As one example using an SSBC approach in connection with preparing a video signal for displaying on a display, the video signal may be adjusted, e.g., to stretch gray scale, to alter the intensity of the light illuminating the display, etc. A purpose for these adjustments is to increase the inter frame contrast ratio, called the dynamic contrast, and to enhance the details and the visibility of details as well as to reduce contouring in bright or dark areas of the image. Examples of SSBC apparatus and methods are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,422, issued Feb. 10, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 6,816,141 B1 issued Nov. 9, 2004, and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/983,403, filed Nov. 8, 2004, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated by this reference.